"...AND WOMEN HAVE RIGHTS SIMILAR TO WHAT THEY OWE AS RECOGNISED,..." (SURAH AL-BAQARAH: 228)

In the interpretation of this verse Hazrat Mufti Muhammad Shafi RE has listed some of those rights that Islam gave to women for the first time in history. Today it seems like no big deal but this has to be understood in the context that Islam gave these rights to women about 1500 years ago, about 13 to14 centuries before the struggle for women's rights in the West even started.

• It was declared that women had rights over men, just as men had certain rights over women.
• Women were declared to be free and independent human beings, as against being the property of their fathers or husbands. Women were given rights over their life and their property, just like men had rights over their lives and property.
• It was declared that no one, regardless of whether it was a woman's father or her grandfather, could force an adult woman to marry someone without their consent. In situations where a Nikah was done before a woman reached adulthood, its validity remained subject to the woman's consent after reaching adulthood. If she said No, it was declared null and void.
• It was declared that no male had any right to spend anything from what belonged to a woman, without her consent and approval. 
• After the death of her husband, or being divorced by him, a woman became independent and no one had the right to compel her to do anything against her wishes.
• Women started receiving inheritance.
• To spend on a woman, and to keep her happy, has been declared an Ibadah in Shariah. 
• It was declared that if  a husband failed to fulfil rights due to his wife, she could force him to either fulfil those rights, or divorce her, through an Islamic court.

From Ma'ariful Quran, by Mufti Muhammad Shafi RE